I wrote a column about a scam artist, and it’s been a while since I got so big a reaction to a column. She was an older woman who dropped a plastic bag handed to her by a CVS clerk and instantly...

I wrote a column about a scam artist, and it’s been a while since I got so big a reaction to a column.

She was an older woman who dropped a plastic bag handed to her by a CVS clerk and instantly began asking for an “accident report,” saying a soft-drink bottle she’d bought fell on her foot. Standing in line behind her, I spoke up, saying it was her fault, not the clerk’s. The woman tried to insist, but more loudly, I repeated that I’d witnessed it. She slinked away.

The column brought an avalanche of reader response. I’m trying to decide whether to be demoralized or heartened.

Let’s begin with the demoralizing part. From what readers told me, it’s astonishing how many people are out there trying to milk the system.

A message from Anne Aldridge, owner of Ocean State House Cleaning, was typical. “If an employee so much as gets a splinter,” she wrote, “they go running to a worker’s comp attorney and the insurance company just pays because it’s cheaper than to fight the fraud.”

She added that these employees never have a problem coming in to get their comp check but fight “tooth and nail” when doctors try to clear them to work again.

A reader named Andrew Zack said he was on jury duty for a slip-and-fall case when the judge asked if anyone might be biased.

“Lady raises her hand,” he wrote, “and begins to list all the slip-and-fall cases she, her sister and her mother have been involved in. Apparently, it was their family business to slip and fall and sue.”

I heard from Andrew Dansereau, who deals in motorcycles. “I have had many customers that have told me they are waiting for a claim to settle so they can buy a bike,” he said. “Too many live their lives going from one claim to another. Greed.”

Many store clerks told me scammers are rampant in the retail world.

“What we deal with is appalling,” wrote a CVS employee named Rebecca. “Not only the scammers like you experienced, but people who try to return items they bought at Job Lot and we discontinued three years ago. They throw a fit till they get what they want.”

I got a similar email from Jrumbles: “As someone who works in retail on the East Side,” she said, “I cannot tell you how often that happens. People try to get a fake lawsuit started over anything. I have seen customers walk in, take something from a shelf, go up to the counter and loudly complain about the product and get a refund for it.”

That was the demoralizing part. You read such things so often you sometimes think we’ve become the injury-claim society. And it’s not just an impression — it has become an industry. We’re bombarded with attorney ads all but begging people to call with “injury” claims. No risk, the attorneys promise. No need to pay anything — they’ll just get you what you want.

Indeed, an attorney named Kathy who said she defends against such cases wrote this: “Most insurances will pay a ‘nuisance’ payoff to get rid of small claims,” she said, “and people know this.”

But now the heartening part.

You’d think people wouldn’t care, since the targets are often big corporations such as CVS, with insurance companies backing them. But I heard from scores of folks furious at scammers who work the system.

I hadn’t realized the depth of outrage against it. People understand viscerally that every time a person like that older lady files a phony “accident report,” we all pay. Prices go up, and so do premiums.

Despite the subculture of phony claims, it’s clear there’s a bigger culture of contempt for such people.

“Have you seen the ambulance chasing lawyers ads on TV?” wrote Elaine Butterfield. “One after another after another urging people to sue. I am disgusted with people who are out to rip off others.”

“I hate hearing about the losers who think everyone owes them,” wrote MaryAnne O’Neil Fritz. “Get out and work like the rest of us.”

“It’s disgusting, the ‘Gimme something for nothing’ attitude way too many people have,” wrote Melissa Manish Richmond.

And dozens more like that.

You don’t often see anger at injury scammers showcased this way, because there are few venues for people to vent. But the column I wrote gave folks an outlet. And the fury came pouring out.

Yet, folks also poured out examples of scammers working the system every day.

So I’m trying to decide whether I should be demoralized by the response, or heartened.